Encountering Worldviews: Pupil Perspectives on Integrative Worldview Education in a Finnish Secondary School Context

Åhs, Vesa; Poulter, Saila; Kallioniemi, Arto

doi:10.1080/15507394.2015.1128311

Cited by 23 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Should it be a common subject for all religions? Now, everyone is getting RE according their own creed (Rissanen 2014;Rissanen et al 2016;Poulter 2013;Åhs et al 2015;Kuusisto and Gearon 2016;Matilainen 2016). For example, in the 1960s, it was debated whether teachers were mainly representatives of a particular religion or subject, although the scale of religious diversity in society was different from today (Aikonen 2015, pp.…”

Section: Previous Research On Re In the Finnish School Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Religious Education Teachers: Four Retrospective Career Trajectories

2019

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This article examines the career paths of Finnish Religious Education (RE) teachers who were born in the 1930s, through a retrospective, self-autobiographical life history approach. The material reported here is a part of wider data of mainly written narratives (N = 62) from RE teachers who recount their career trajectories. In these career-focused life histories, the teachers outline their own professionalism as embedded in changing sociohistorical contexts, where to a great extent they tell about the active development of the school and the teaching of their particular subject to answer to the changing needs and challenges. Some teachers have, along with their teaching, also been actively involved in different communities or associations. Many of the Religious Education teachers here reflect on their career paths in relation to their profession as a teacher and often also with double qualifications as pastor trained theologians. At times, this constructs a possibility for tension between the roles of a teacher and that of a pastor, and in the perceptions of RE as a school subject and as something "preached" in the pulpit-some see their professionalism above all in relation to their religious life. This also includes a notable gender divide in the data, as at the time when these teachers gained their professional qualifications, it was only possible for men to be ordained in the Finnish Lutheran Church. Succeeding this, the male teachers in these data commonly have pastorhood as their first profession. For the purpose of this article, the career accounts of four teachers have been selected for further analysis, as they were perceived as telling examples of the wider material in terms of more or less typical career paths.

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Section: Previous Research On Re In the Finnish School Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Religious Education Teachers: Four Retrospective Career Trajectories

2019

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“…The Finnish model has been justified by claims that instead of the subject placing itself either in the confessional or secular ends, the standpoint is every pupil's 'own' particular religious tradition, and thus this guarantees the rights of religious minorities. (For more about the Finnish model, see Matilainen & Kallioniemi 2011;Matilainen 2014;Åhs et al 2016. ) Currently, however, there have been some schools in the Finnish educational field who have pioneered a partially integrative model of WE (Käpylehto 2015;Åhs et al 2016).…”

Section: Finnish Model Of Wementioning

confidence: 99%

“…(For more about the Finnish model, see Matilainen & Kallioniemi 2011;Matilainen 2014;Åhs et al 2016. ) Currently, however, there have been some schools in the Finnish educational field who have pioneered a partially integrative model of WE (Käpylehto 2015;Åhs et al 2016). Our study looks closely at two of these schools, which were among the first to pioneer an integrative model of WE in a Finnish context.…”

Section: Finnish Model Of Wementioning

confidence: 99%

Preparing for the world of diverse worldviews: parental and school stakeholder views on integrative worldview education in a Finnish context

Åhs

Poulter

Kallioniemi

2017

British Journal of Religious Education

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The aim of this paper is to explore integrative worldview education as a platform for learning from worldviews in a diverse cultural context. This is done by examining integrative worldview education in a Finnish secondary school context by examining the views of school stakeholders. The stakeholders examined in this article consist of 174 parents of the pupils and a total of 6 teachers and headteachers from two different secondary schools in Helsinki. We use the concept of learning from worldviews to examine the possibilities of the integrative classroom to facilitate learning from both personal and organized worldviews. The results indicate, that the stakeholders view integrative worldview education as an important tool for widening the worldview of the pupil. Although the stakeholders view the sensitivity of the teacher as paramount in teaching an integrative classroom, integrative worldview education is also seen as important in offering tools for forging mutual understandings in an ever more complex world of worldviews.

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“…Within Northern Europe, there is increasing academic interest in the inclusion of nonreligious worldviews i in the school curriculum and issues raised by this (e.g. Åhs, Poulter and Kallioniemi 2016;2017;Lofstedt and Sjorborg 2018;Oostdijk, Veugelers and Leeman 2015; Van der Kooij et al 2013). However, in 2018, very few European countries included such a study, and there are even fewer where there is integration of the study of religions and non-religious worldviews.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%